Friday, January 15, 2010

Unmounting Stamps

Space has been a real issue for me for a long time. Somehow I cannot part with any of my stamp sets.It also has been difficult to find the stamp I wanted, despite using what I thought was an excellent indexing method.
When stampin' Up came up with the new clear mount stamps in a DVD case I had an Ah-Ah moment!
I could do the same thing - take my  current stamps off their wooden mounts.
Here's I did it:
1.  Put the stamp in the microwave oven for 15 seconds.
2.  Carefully remove the stamp from the wooden block
3.  Place unmounted stamp in DVD case I had purchased in the dollar store
4.  Placed a picture of the enclosed stamps in the front and rear plastic sleeve
5.  Carefully label the spine with the stamp set name
6.  I went 1 step further - categorizing them using colour codes
                              .green:  nature
                             . pink: words
                             .coral: occasions
                             .red : heart in white circle - valentine
                             .blue: fancy elements
                             .mauve: children
                             .brown: hostess
If any of you have any other coding system I would love to hear from you
I have unmounted approximately 3/4 of my collection and am loving it.
However, I am now faced with a mountain of wooden blocks and frankly was in a conundrum as to what to do with them.  Fortunately I was able to use them to trade for an item I wanted desperately from a scrapbooking store.
But first - I had to clean all the glue off them and remove the labels.  The glue residue created the biggest challenge.  I tried many different strategies - from "goo gone" to varsal (odourless paint remover), but finally came up with a method that worked, even though it took a bit of elbow grease.
Apply gloves and work in a well ventilated area.
First, scrap off as much of the residue as possible, using a putty knife.
Then apply nail polish remover with a clean cloth.  Buff dry.
The larger blocks may require a second application.
Works like a charm.
My cats did not like this method at all.  Mischief, my black cat (well named) took one sniff of what I was up to and immediately high tailed it out of the room, briefly pausing at the threshold of the door to turn his head and give me a "dirty" look.
Now, what to do with all those empty cases.  Does anyone have any ideas?


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